Harvesting Used Bricks And Brick Rustling

I like bricks. When I was a kid, my Dad bought several dump truck loads of 'dirty' brick when I-44 was being built through St. Louis. We cleaned those bricks and made a large patio in our back yard that went all around the summerhouse. I am pretty sure we got pictures somewhere, probably my sister has them.

I have picked up bricks here and there, mostly pavers, for to build sidewalks around the house. I have harvested and stockpiled bricks from Habitat for Humanity Restore, the building salvage yard at Nichols and Bypass, houses torn down in flood plains (with permission), used sidewalks and driveways, and Craigslist building materials (there's more to that site than the personals, although they are the most fun to read. Who knew all that stuff is going on Springfield!). I even got a big truck to haul them in. I am going to add a dump bed to it this summer so it will be easier to unload.

Oh yeah. I like bricks.

The picture above is the sidewalk the neighbor and I built between our houses. The bricks came from a driveway at a house on South Jefferson, just south of the cemetery. My folks lived there and blacktopped the driveway and gave me the bricks if I would dig them up. The sidewalk was built in 1992. It has started to settle, but it has a very nice patina.

I found this website about St. Louis brick rustling.